Coach dependence has never appealed to veteran off-spinner Ravichandran Ashwin. Throughout his 14 years as an international cricket player, Ashwin has amassed 744 wickets in 281 matches. He has always placed a high importance on his capacity for autonomous thought and personal growth. He thinks that athletes who rely too much on their coaches may become inflexible and less able to think creatively.
The 37-year-old’s admission comes at a time when sports mentoring has advanced and more players have grown to rely heavily on their coaches. Ashwin does see a possible drawback to this tendency, though. He underlined the value of independence and the risks associated with relying too much on outside advice.
According to the 37-year-old off-spinner, who was cited by Business Insider, “a lot of players are heavily dependent on coaches or mentors, or one person which I think is a very dangerous trend because latching on to people and over-dependency can cause you to not be able to open to new ideas.”
I disagree with the coaching concept of today: Ravichandran Ashwin
Early mentors in Ashwin’s cricket career included WV Raman and the legendary S Badrinath of Tamil Nadu. But he never allowed their connection to become dependent on him. Ashwin gives Raman credit for not forcing him down a certain route and for giving him the flexibility to experiment with his game.
“You can get assistance from others. However, they are unable to mentor you in your professional life; instead, you must be receptive to new ideas. For me, WV gave me the opportunity to express myself and try new things. He never told me, “This is the path you need to travel upon,” but instead showed me how and what path I needed to take.
Ashwin criticises contemporary coaching ideologies that treat every player equally with the same methods. He feels that this strategy disregards the distinctiveness of every player and their particular difficulties.
“One modern-day coaching philosophy which I totally disagree with is the fact that they try to copy-paste the same technique (solution) that’s worked for another cricketer,” Ashwin continued.
Although some athletes flourish under the rigorous supervision of coaches, the seasoned player thinks that this can result in a closed mind. Cricket provides players with a lot of different obstacles all the time, so he feels that players need to be able to solve their own problems.
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“As a cricketer, you constantly are thrown up with new challenges, so you must be able to find your own answers,” Ashwin said.
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